Tough luck for Fortune

The penultimate meeting of the season at Headquarters opened yesterday with a victory for Esyoueffcee in the Severals Stakes, something which Sheffield United, after whom she is named, have found rather harder to come by in recent weeks.

Mick Easterby's filly had to survive a stewards' inquiry, however, into interference also involving Riberac, the favourite, in the final 100 yards, and while Jimmy Fortune's mount kept the race, the jockey was suspended for two days (29 and 30 October) for careless riding.

"We rode her too handy last time, and today she has saved her speed for the finish," Robin O'Ryan, Easterby's assistant said. Esyoueffcee, who started at 14-1, may now continue her racing career in the United States.